This is 'Funny?'

To anyone who might have followed my recommendation to watch the movie “Funny People,” I’m sorry.

Really, really sorry.

Just like a book and its cover, you can’t judge a movie by its previews.

According to those previews, “Funny People” was about an actor/comedian (Adam Sandler) who is diagnosed with a terminal disease, hires a young comedian (Seth Rogen, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”) to write for him and tries to reconnect with an old flame (Leslie Mann, “17 Again”).

The actual overriding theme of the movie, however, is that there is nothing — nothing! — funnier in all of human experience than male genitalia.

That’s pretty much the only topic any of the so-called comedians in the movie can joke about. Occasionally they venture into uncharted territory but soon return to their old stomping grounds below the belt.

The movie is written and directed by Judd Apatow, the man behind “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up.” He’s also had a hand in movies like “Superbad,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Walk Hard.”

I’ve avoided all of these movies due to what I feared would be an inordinate amount of raunchiness masquerading as humor. But the previews for “Funny People” piqued my interest, and I hoped that, while there would be some vulgarity, there would also be a good story and some clever writing.

Wrong.

Apatow is considered the master of comedy by many, and the cast is filled with some of the supposedly funniest people in Hollywood. In addition to the characters, there are at least a dozen cameos by notable comedians.

And to judge from the dialogue, a lot of which sounded improvised, most of them believe all humor begins and ends at the crotch.

Look, I won’t lie and say I don’t laugh at off-color jokes sometimes. But that’s not the only kind of humor there is. And simply talking about a crude subject doesn’t make great, or even halfway decent, comedy.

Even if I could look past the one-note “jokes,” the movie doesn’t hold up well. Despite a nearly two-and-a-half-hour running time that feels more like four hours, certain scenes and elements seem rushed, like there are details missing. It looks like Apatow had a lot more to say, but had to cut it down to keep it from becoming a two-part, “Kill Bill”-like opus.

That’s probably a good thing.